The hammerhead ribozyme is a small catalytic RNA motif capable of endonucleolytic (self-)
cleavage. It is composed of a catalytic core of conserved nucleotides flanked by three …

Simple Summary Viroids are the smallest infectious agents currently known. Despite
consisting of a relatively small RNA molecule that does not code for any protein, viroids …

Hammerhead ribozymes are small self-cleaving RNAs that promote strand scission by
internal phosphoester transfer. Comparative sequence analysis was used to identify …

We have obtained precatalytic (enzyme–substrate complex) and postcatalytic (enzyme–
product complex) crystal structures of an active full-length hammerhead RNA that cleaves in …

Invertebrates were long thought to possess only a simple, effective and hence non-adaptive
defence system against microbial and parasitic attacks. However, recent studies have …

Research in the last two decades has increasingly demonstrated that RNA has capabilities
comparable to those of proteins, for example the ability to form intricate 3D structures …

Viroids are the smallest autonomous infectious nucleic acids known today. They are non-
coding, unencapsidated, circular RNAs with sizes ranging from 250 to 400 nucleotides and …

Viroids are small circular single-stranded infectious RNAs characterized by a relatively high
mutation level. Knowledge of their sequence heterogeneity remains largely elusive and …

Chimeras of the well-characterized minimal hammerhead 16 and nine extended
hammerheads derived from natural viroids and satellite RNAs were constructed with the …

The structural biology of ribozymes and ribonucleoprotein (RNP) enzymes is now sufficiently
advanced that a true dialogue between structural and functional studies is possible. In this …